This World AIDS Day, our youth reporters from Alice in the Eastern Cape of South Africa feature as the catalysts for change in a new video that raises awareness about HIV stigma.

Despite offering free access to antiretroviral treatment, South African clinics often struggle to get youth through the door to test for HIV and access health services. In the town of Alice in the Eastern Cape, nurses say many adolescents only come to the clinic when they are critically ill, making treatment very difficult.

The fear of HIV stigma and discrimination is the key dissuasive factor stopping youth from getting tested and seeking out treatment.

“When you stigmatize someone about their HIV status, you’re killing someone else, because someone else out there will be afraid to go for a HIV test,” says Olwethu Sapula, a youth reporter working in Alice.

The Breaking New Ground youth reporters from Forte FM use their radio shows to get their...

World Children’s Day 2018 addressed the issue of safety and the right to live free from harm. Globally young people took a stand to make their voices heard, and use various platforms to share their opinions. Our youth reporters at our projects in Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Ivory Coast were involved in a number of activities.

In South Africa, we had two youth reporters from Alex FM host the UNICEF Facebook Live event, which addressed bullying and safety for young people. Mary-Ann Nobele and Palesa Motaung were sensitive hosts to the event hosted at Ndalo Media in Johannesburg, which was also broadcast via Facebook Live. They spoke about bullying, mental health and how young people can make powerful choices. You can see the live event video here.

In Zambia, our partners Agents of Change Foundation, along with UNICEF Zambia and Global Platform, hosted a symposium ahead of World Childrens’ Day, and facilitated the ‘kids...

The Children’s Radio Foundation is thrilled to announce that our WhatsApp radio integration initiative with the Media Development Investment Fund won the African Digital Media Award for Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences!

On the 23rd of November 2018, Linda Daniels, the project manager of our WhatsApp radio integration initiative, accepted the African Digital Media Award for Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences on behalf of the Children’s Radio Foundation. Organised in Johannesburg by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the African Digital Media Awards is reputed to be “the most prestigious competition in the industry for publishers to benchmark their digital offerings,” and receiving it gives recognition to the Children’s Radio Foundation’s investment as an organisation in community radio, and in particular our efforts in finding innovative ways to capacitate this under-resourced sector...

The Children’s Radio Foundation launches two new project sites in Ivory Coast. This brings our total up to 10 project sites across the country, and with it a whole new cohort of enthusiastic young people on their way to producing powerful radio.

Without a CRF team on the ground in Ivory Coast, we rely on the help of our implementing partners, Association des Scouts Catholiques de Cote d’Ivoire and UNICEF Cote D’Ivoire, to train and support our youth reporters. Our most recent training session, facilitated by Clemence Petit-Perrot and Leader Kanyiki took place in Daloa in central Ivory Coast, and was geared towards equipping our implementing partners, our trainers and our youth reporters with the skills they’ll need to run our two new sites – one in Daloa and one in Soubré, which brings the total number of CRF sites up to 10 across the Ivory Coast.

15 young reporters have been recruited at each new site, and the shows produced...

Vuyo, a young person from Mitchell’s Plein in Cape Town, talks about his challenges of commuting to school that is far from his home. He shares his views about the benefits of living in the inner city, and why he feels it would be safer for him and his family.

He supports the campaign by Reclaim the City for affordable housing in the the inner city. Take a listen.